Lecture 1. Theoretical grammar: a preliminary outline.

Introduction to morphology
Points for discussion
• Grammar as a linguistic study. Types of Grammar: descriptive vs prescriptive.
•The history of English Grammars. The basics of word structure.
• Classification of morphemes. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of grammatical units.
Theoretical grammar as the linguistic science
• The subject of theoretical grammar is a systematic study of the grammatical structure of Modern English.
• Its aim is to present a theoretical description of the grammatical system, i.e. to scientifically analyse, define
grammatical categories, and study the mechanisms of grammatical formation of utterances out of words in the
process of speech making.
Morphology (Greek morphe – form, shape, and logos – learning) deals with the word classes, their grammatical
categories and systems of forms (paradigms) in which these categories actually exist.
Syntax (Greek syn – with, and tasso – arrange) examines the way words combine to form sentences and phrases.
Can be studied diachronically and synchronically.
Diachronic description when we describe a language from the perspective of change (historical grammar).
Synchronic description offers a representation of a language at a particular moment of time.
Approaches to grammar
(1) Should we, in our grammatical accounts, describe how English is used by its speakers? (Descriptive approach)
(2) Should we offer rules on how some people think it should be used? (Prescriptive approach)
A popular view of the role of grammar which is reflected in many school grammars is that it should presents a set
of rules for speaking and writing 'correctly' and it is concerned with prescribing the ways in which language should
be used. (Prescriptive grammar)
Modern linguistics is descriptive.
Descriptive grammar is concerned with describing how language is used rather than prescribing how it should be
used. It may distinguish between formal and informal contexts; or it may report whether a certain form is part of
the standard language, whether it is more common in spoken English, or whether it only occurs in certain regions.
(a) [He knew more about it] than I Formal
(b) [He knew more about it] than me Informal
(c) [He knew more about it] than I did Neutral
Prescriptive grammar dictates what one should say and write according to the linguistic norms prevalent at the
time.
Examples of prescriptive rules are:
(1) Do not end a sentence with a preposition. (e.g. Do not say ‘This is the house which he lives in’ (informal
context); say ‘This is the house in which he lives’) (formal context).
(2) Do not split an infinitive. (e.g. Do not say ‘I expect to shortly welcome him here’; say ‘I expect to welcome him
here shortly’).
(3) Say: “yes" not “yeah".
(4) Say "I don't want any", not "I don't want none".
(5) A pronoun must agree in gender, and number with the nouns to which it refers.
 The history of English Grammars
English language history has a long tradition. Until the 17th century, the term “grammar” meant “the study of
Latin”.
One of the earliest and the most popular Latin grammars in English by William Lily was published in the first half
of the 16th century.
Among English grammars, which appeared in the first half of the 17th century Ben Johnson’s and Ch. Butler’s
grammars can be mentioned. These grammars are called prenormative. They described different language
phenomena (classification of parts of speech, the problem of the number of cases, the syntactic system of English).
The age of prescriptive grammar begins in the 2nd half of the 18th century. It was Robert Lowth’s “Short
introduction to English Grammar” (1762). The aim was to reduce the English language to rules and set up strict
rules of language usage.
By the end of the 19th century, when prescriptive grammar had reached its highest level of development, the
appearance of the scientific grammar became possible. Henry Sweet’s “New English Grammar. Logical and
Historical” (1891) gave a scientific explanation of the grammatical phenomena.
Structural (or descriptive) grammar, 1940's (American structural grammarians Ch. Fries, L. Bloomfield, H.
Whitehall) began treating the problem of the structure of English.
(TG) Transformational-generative grammar appeared in 1950’s in which transformational rules form an
essential part. These rules are capable of producing an infinite number of grammatical sentences. This theory
grammar was first introduced by Noam Chomsky in his “Syntactic structures (1957)” and it has been developed by
Zellig Harris (both Americans)
The theory of TG begins by making a distinction of kernel sentences and their transforms. Kernel sentences are
the basic elementary sentences from which all else are made. Transforms are derived from the basic sentences by
certain grammatical rules.
E.g., He gave me a book. – He gave me a look. He gives me… He is giving… He will give… (Subject and
predicate from which all else are made).
Generative Semantics is the theory of grammar developed as an alternative to the transformational-generative
model. In this model, semantic structure has a generative role (John Lyons).
Textual Linguistics is the study of “communicative text” rather than grammatical sentences. Its aim is to observe
such devices as coherence and cohesion over unit larger than a sentence (paragraph, page text) needed for the
theoretical description of text.
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit into which a word form may be divided. (A word is the biggest.)
L. Bloomfield – A morpheme is a minimal meaningful unit.
e.g. readers
(1) –read, expressing the basic lexical meaning of the word;
(2) -er, expressing the idea of agent performing the action indicated by the root of the word;
(3) -s, indicating number, i.e. showing that more than one person is doing this work
A morph (allomorph) is the smallest meaningful succession of phonemes which cannot be divided into any other
meaningful units and which regularly occur in different utterances characterized by the state of complementary
distribution.
A morpheme is a set of morphs having the same meaning and being in the state of complementary distribution.
Complementary distribution (структура додаткового розподілу) concerns different environments of formally
different morphs, which are united by the same meaning. It means one morph never stands in place of another
within the same class of elements.
For example,
• Inhuman, impossible, immoral, impatient, impolite, illegal, irregular (the meaning of negativeness -in, -im, -il, -ir)
different morphs in one and the same morpheme of negativeness.
• Clear, clears, clearly, clarify, clarity
• Admirable, admiration, admirability
• Probable, probability,
• Liable, liability
• Decide, decision, decisive

• Book - books /s/

• Boy – boys /z/ Morpheme of plurality
• Box – boxes /iz/
• Ox – oxen
• Foot – feet replacive morphemes
• Man – men
• Sheep – sheep – a zero allomorph
Classification of morphemes
According to function
• Derivational affixes are of two types:
(1) they are either class-changing, i.e. they change the word class of the base (e.g. -er, which makes the verb into a
noun, or -able, which makes it into an adjective), or
(2) class-maintaining, i.e. they produce a new word, which has the same word class as the base (e.g. un-, which
simply forms a new adjective meaning as in unbearable).
• Inflectional morphemes change the grammatical meaning of the word and are not used to indicate part of speech
(e.g. the past tense of verbs in played), the plural of nouns (e.g. dogs), or the comparative form of adjectives (e.g.
shorter).
Sometimes an inflectional morpheme acquires a new lexical meaning.
E.g., colour – colours (flag)
Force (strength) – forces (army)
Honor – honors
In modern English, a boundary between derivational and inflectional morphemes is hard to find.
- ing: writing (noun) He is writing.
Derivational Inflectional
Prof. Blokh divided into 2 large groups:
• Uninterrupted (or synthetic) (affixation, morphemic alteration)
(1) Outer (e.g. rooms, children)
(2) Inner (e.g. dr-i-ve, dr-o-ve, dr-i-ven)
(3) Suppletive (e.g. I – me, good – better, bad - worse, go – went etc.)
• Interrupted (or analytical) (e.g. has invited, is invited, is writing, does not write etc.)
Paradigmatic and syntagmatic morphology
Lingual units stand to one another in two fundamental types of relations - paradigmatic and syntagmatic.
In present day linguistics the term “morphology” refers to the study of the internal structure of word and of the
systematic form meaning correspondences between words.
a. buy b. buyer
eat eater
paint painter
sell seller
send sender
The term 'paradigm' is used to denote the ordered set of linguistic elements with a common property expressing a
definite categorical function.
When morphology is defined as the study of the internal constituent structure of words, we take syntagmatic
perspective.
Syntagmatic relations expose linear relationships of dissimilar units following each other in the syntagmatic chain.
Buy and -er ------ buyer
Morphemes within the words are connected syntagmatically (e.g.: space/ship; launch/ed; with/out; boost/er).
Grammatical category
Since grammar of any language is a unity of form and content (meaning), it appears to be generalized in its
categorial expression.
Grammatical category is the group (or set) of self-exclusive form- classes. Accordingly, word forms that carry a
certain grammatical information are said to constitute a paradigm on the bases of the grammatical category (case,
number, tense, aspect, comparison degree)
Boy – boys
Girl – girls
Foot – feet
Goose – geese
Datum – data
The members of the grammatical categories are represented by the grammatical opposition. The main types are:
• Privative
• Gradual
• Equipollent
A privative opposition is formed by a pair of members, one of which is marked (strong) and the other is unmarked
(weak).
E.g., the expression of the verbal present and past tenses is based on a privative opposition. Suffix -ed renders the
meaning of the past tense, it marks the past form of the verb positively (we worked), & the present form negatively
(we work). The marked member of the opposition may also be represented by a 0-morpheme, but it happens very
rarely (e.g. sheep).
A gradual opposition is formed by a group of members, which are distinguished not by the presence or absence of
a feature but by the degree of it.
E.g., the category of degrees of comparison of adjectives is represented by a gradual opposition (e.g., beautiful –
more beautiful – the most beautiful; great – greater – the greatest).
An equipollent opposition is formed by a contrastive pair or group in which the members are distinguished by
different positive features.
E.g., to be – am – is – are;
E.g., the phonemes /m/ and /b/, both bilabial consonants form an equipollent opposition, /m/ being sonorous
nasalized, /b/ being plosive.
Lecture 2. Grammatical classes of words
1. The problem of classifying words
2. Open VS closed classes
3. The theory of Ch. Fries
4. Other classifications
The words of language depending on various formal and semantic features are categorized so that it is possible to
classify them. These words classes are called parts of speech and they are treated in different ways.
The parts of speech problem remains one of the most controversial problems in general grammar. The term “part of
speech” goes back to ancient times.
Eight original classes of words were derived from Aristotelian Logic, the study of Latin and Greek
1. noun
2. adjective
3. verb
4. adverb
5. pronoun
6. conjunction
7. preposition
8. interjection
The classification of words into 8 classes is based on distinctions of grammatical behavior with semantic
considerations playing a merely subsidiary role. Nevertheless, this classification can be slightly adjusted.
1. The difference between nouns and pronouns is not sufficient to treat them as a separate class. In modern
grammar, they are regarded as being a subclass of nouns. Thus, proff. Rodney Huddleston in his English
Grammar.Cambridh= (1988) modified the traditional classification of parts of speech. He distinguished 8 parts
of speech and referred pronouns to the class of determinatives (classification is based on combinatorial
properties)
1) Verb (‘V’) [She] will [perhaps] say [it] is [hers]
2) Noun (‘N’) Tom [bought a] bottle [of] sherry
3) Adjective (‘Adj’) [The] new [captain was very] good
4) Adverb (‘Adv’) [She] usually (says they are] very [useful]
5) Preposition (‘Prep’) [A thick carpet] of [snow lay] on [the ground]
6) Determinative (‘Dv’) The (boss had] a (chance to get] his [revenge]
7) Coordinator ('Coord') [You can have fish] and [chips] or [stew]
8) Subordinator ('Subord') [He says] that [he asked] whether [it was free]
2. The traditional class of conjunctions has been replaced by the 2 classes of subordinators (corresponding to the
traditional class of the subordinating conjunctions) and coordinators (corresponding to the traditional class of
the coordinating conjunctions).
Determinatives are more commonly referred as determiners in modern grammars. Thus the class of
determinatives includes articles, possessive pronouns, genitive phrases (a dog’s), numerals and numerical
expressions, quantifiers (some, any, no, every), demonstrative determinatives (this, that, those, these).
3. Interjections have little significant role to play in the grammar of English. They are peripheral to the language
system and better handled in the context or spoken discourse.
4. Sorting words into the proper groups would be simple if a word could belong to only one part of speech and if
it behaved like all other members of the group. Words may belong to more than one word class.
E.g., down:
- a preposition (She ran down the road)
- an adverb (She fell down)
- an adjective (She’s feeling very down today)
- a noun (My blanket if filled with down)
- a verb (Watch him down this schooner of beer)
Open and closed classes
In ME the 8 word classes may be subdivided broadly into:
- Open: nouns, adjectives, adverbs, (main) verbs
- Closed: pronouns, determiners, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions
Open class words are sometimes referred to as “lexical” or “content” words reflecting their lexical content (e.g.,
nouns characteristically denote substances and entities, verbs – processes and states, adjectives – properties and
qualities).
Closed class words sometimes referred to as “grammatical” or “function” words, reflecting the fact that their
primary role is to show the meaning relationship between notional words in a sentence or phrase.(E.g., in response
to, to speak with, to listen to) (Structural words)
Three properties characterizing open classes of words
For each of 4 open class words, there are three types of criteria that are used to find out the word class of a given
word.
1) Syntactic. These properties of the parts speech include their function within the phrase and their distribution
(specifically, the dependent items that they may combine with in phrases and sentences).
2) Morphological. These properties include the types of inflectional properties they exhibit and the
morphological processes used for forming members of this part of speech from other parts of speech.
3) Semantic. These properties mean not the individual meaning of each separate word, but the meaning common
to all the words of the given class. Thus, nouns denote persons and objects if they are ‘concrete’ nouns and
‘abstract’ nouns denote states, activities, occasions (e.g., retirement, sadness); verbs express actions, activities,
states and relationships, etc.; adjectives typically denote properties and qualities; the meaning of adverbs is the
property of an action (that is manner, direction, time, degree, etc.)
In conclusion, part of speech is a class of lexemes, characterized by its lexical, grammatical meaning, its lexical,
grammatical morphemes, its grammatical categories or paradigms, its combinability or distribution, its functions in
the sentence.
In order to illustrate how they work we can take examples.
She wore a yellow dress.
Don’t use this soap, it yellows the linen.
The yellow of an egg is called a yolk.
Ch. Fries “The Structure of English”
Made his classification of the class of speech upon the syntactical distributional principle that is on the syntactic
positions (combinability) that is the co-occurrence of linguistic units in the linear order (sentence). According to his
theory, each part of speech is marked off from other parts of speech by a set of formal contrasts, which we learn
unconsciously as we learn the language.
All words in English that occupy the same set of positions in the sentence must belong to the same part of speech.
Ch. Fries uses the following sentences as test frames.
Frame A. The good concert was (may be) good (always)
Frame B. The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly)
Frame C. The team went there
All the words, which can function in the position of the word CONCERT (Frame A) and TEXT (Frame B), belong
to class 1. This class corresponds to nouns.
Words of class 2 take the position of the words WAS (Frame A), REMEMBERED (Frame B) and WENT (Frame
C).
The words used in the position of GOOD (Frame A) belong to class 3.
The words of class 4 take the position of THERE (Frame C).
These 4 parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) contain nearly 67% of the total instances of the
vocabulary items.
Besides these 4 classes, he distinguished 15 groups of function words for which he suggests letter symbols (A, B,
C… up to O)
15 groups of function words
- Group A comprises all determiners, i.e. all words that can perform the functions of the definite article in
Frame A.
- Group B contains all the words that can substitute ‘may’ in Frame A. In other words, it consists of modal
and auxiliary words.
- Group C is composed of one word – not (negative particle).
- Group D comprises all the words that can function in the position of very, which signals a certain degree of
quality (quite, most, rather etc.).
- Group E – and (but, or, either. or).
- Group F – the position of at.
- Group N – please.
- Group O – let’s.
His division is based on the distributional and syntactic principle, the positions they take within the sentence
structure.
N. Rayevska suggested her own classification. She distinguishes 11 parts of speech (notional and functional)
- Notional (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, numerals)
- Functional (modal verbs, interjections, prepositions, conjunctions, particles)
E.Morokhovska modified the traditional classification and suggested dividing words into lexical and functional.
- Lexical (‘lexical words’) – denotative ability
- Functional (‘functional words’) – significative ability
Lexical parts of speech are linguistic signs that possess denotative ability. They perform various syntactic
functions in the sentence. They are names of extra linguistic objects and phenomena. Function words do not
denote any object, concept, quality or action; they mark out certain types of relation between lexical words, word
phrases and sentences. Function words possess significative ability.
The basic functional words are articles, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, modal words, interjections.
R.Quirk. S.Greenbaum, G.Leech, J,Svartvik
“A University Grammar of English” (influenced by Ch. Fries)
They divided all words into two groups.
  Class words (group 1) – nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs
 Formal words (group 2) – articles, demonstratives, other pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions,
interjections.
These authors combined the achievements of the traditional and structural approaches. Their classification is
obviously influenced by Ch. Fries’ division.
Lecture 3. Nouns and adjectives
Points for discussion
1. General characteristics of the English noun.
2. The classification of nouns.
3. The category of number.
4. The category of case.
5. The problem of gender in English.
6. Grammatical properties of the adjectives.
7. The classification of adjectives.
8. Words belonging to the category of state.
Noun is a part of speech which:
 has the lexical meaning of thingness or substance
 is characterized by such inflectional morphemes as the morpheme of plurality and the morphemes of
possessive case, and derivational morphemes (-er, -ist, -ness, -ship, -ment, -ful, -hood, etc)
 has two grammatical categories (the categories of number and case)
 can be combined with adjectives, verbs, pronouns, numerals and nouns
 can perform the syntactic functions of the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute and the adverbial
modifier.
According to meaning, form, function, combinability, nouns are divided into subclasses: common and proper
Proper nouns tend to appear with no determiner or modification, though actually the commonly precedes certain
types of proper noun: rivers (the Thames), mountain ranges (the Alps) and so on (and is also capitalized in a few
cases: The Hague, The Times. Sometimes, there are situations where proper nouns are found with determiners or
modifications (or in the plural).
 There are two Mark Browns in my class.
 They say he's the next Maradona.
 He remembered an England of green fields and endless summers.
These nouns have been converted into common nouns (even though the capital letter is retained).
Countable and non-countable nouns
The difference is lying in the meaning. Their meaning is different: concreteness or particularization in the count
usage and abstractness or generalization in the non-count (or ‘mass’) usage. Thus, singular nouns are compatible
with a count interpretation (a, one, another, each, every, either, neither), and others with a mass interpretation
(most, much, enough, little).
Compare: Most stone is very hard. (refers to the geological matter)
He threw another stone into the pond.
Other examples:
 Buy an evening paper.
Wrap the parcel in brown paper.
 The lambs were eating quietly.
There is lamb on the menu.
 My backyard is full of chickens.
 Have we got chicken for the second course?
Some nouns are unexpectedly non-count, for example, advice and information. This even applies to concrete
nouns such as furniture; there no plural 'furnitures'.
Where it is necessary to count such non-count nouns, counting expressions can be used, for example, a piece of
advice, a loaf of bread, two items of furniture.
In many cases the distinction between count and non- count nouns is achieved by separate lexical items: a sheep –
mutton; a calf – veal; a pig – pork; a loaf - bread; a table- furniture, etc.
‘Collective’ nouns
There are some nouns referring to a collection of items or individuals. They can be plural or singular, depending on
whether they are regarded as a single group or as a collection of individuals (e.g. committee, enemy, family,
government, team etc.).
 Her family has produced many politicians.
 Her family have threatened to disown her.
 The staff are discontented.
 The team have decided not to play.
!!! More classifications - individually
The category of number
The category of number is revealed through the opposition of singular and plural forms.
It is the opposition which shows whether the nouns stands for one object or more than one. The marked member of
the opposition is the plural form marked by:
1) The inflexions –s, -es with three allomorphs /s/, /z/, /iz/
2) A non-productive inflexion –en (oxen, children)
3) Vowel interchange (tooth – teeth, foot – feet)
4) The interchange of suffixes in a number of borrowed words (phenomenon – phenomena, criterion – criteria)
5) A ‘zero’ allomorph (sheep, fish, swine, deer)
In the group of non-countable nouns, two subclasses of nouns are usually singled out – from Latin – ‘singularia
tantum’ and ‘pluralia tantum’.
The absolute singular is characteristic of the nouns denoting:
1. Substance (e.g. milk, sugar, wine, tea, chalk);
2. Multitude or collective notions (e.g. mankind, infantry, furniture, foliage);
3. Abstract notions (e.g. love, hatred, health, peace, courage, progress);
4. Nouns denoting branches of professional activity and some diseases (e.g. phonetics, linguistic, measles,
mumps).
The absolute plural is characteristic of the nouns denoting:
1. Objects consisting of two halves (e.g. spectacles, scissors, trousers);
2. Objects rendering the idea of indefinite plurality both concrete and abstract (e.g. clothes, earnings, wages,
cattle, contents, goods);
3. Nouns denoting materials and their remnants (e.g. preserves, pickles, slops)
Some linguists especially professor Barchudarov refer nouns like dominos, cards, billiards to plural only. But
traditionally the games names belong to the absolute singular.
The category of case
The traditional point of view. There are two cases in English: the common case and the possessive case. The first
is the unmarked member of the opposition and the second one is marked member by ‘s, which is pronounced as /s/,
/z/, /iz/.
The theory of positional cases
According to this theory, the case depends on the position of the noun in the sentence.
The following cases are distinguished:
 Nominative case
 Vocative case (in address)
 Dative case (indirect object to a verb)
 Accusative (direct object and also object with preposition)
Theory of prepositional cases
The case may be expressed by prepositions, i.e. by the phrase “preposition + noun”.
Consequently, the “of + noun” phrase corresponds to the Ukrainian noun in genitive case, “to + noun” phrase –
corresponds to the Ukrainian noun in dative case, “with + noun” phrase – corresponds to the Ukrainian noun in
instrumental case.
The possessive postpositional theory
The English noun has completely lost the category of case in the course of its historical development. It is
substantiated by the following arguments:
1) ‘s is used not only with single nouns, but with the whole noun groups, e.g. Smith and Brown’s office; or
groups without nouns, e.g. someone else’s car.
2) The use of the possessive is limited lexically, only animate nouns are used in the possessive case. Inanimate
nouns in the possessive case occur quite rarely, e.g. the house’s roof, though there is a tendency to use
inanimate nouns in possessive case.
3) Collocation fixed phrases, e.g. at the death’s door, life’s work, for God’s sake, for old times’ sake.
Ways of expressing gender in English
The category of gender is rather curious. It has completely disappeared by the end of the Middle English period.
But the category of female and male exists in Modern English, though purely lexical or word-building means are
used. So, we can say that the biological category of sex determines English gender distinction.
There are a few ways of expressing gender in English:
1) An entirely different word is used to differentiate masculine from feminine, e.g. boy – girl, bachelor –
spinster, king – queen, cock – hen, bull – cow, etc.
2) By means of suffixation – ess, -a, -ine, -trix, e.g. actor – actress, poet – poetess, signor – signora, sultan –
sultana, hero – heroine, heir – heiress, Joseph – Josephine, administrator – administratrix.
3) By means of compounding or word composition, e.g. bull-calf – cow-calf, he-goat – she-goat, he-wolf –
she-wolf, male elephant – female elephant
Charles Hockett defines the category of gender on the basis of correlation between nouns and pronouns and he
singles out seven genders in English.
1) John, boy, man – he
2) Mary, girl, woman – she
3) Road, street, paper – it
4) Citizen, president, dean, doctor – he, she
5) Billy-goat, drake – he, it
6) Nanny-goat, boat, car – she, it
7) Baby, child, cat, dog – he, she, it
!!! More classifications - individually
 Adjectives
Adjective is a part of speech, which:
 denotes property of a substance or its quality, which
 is characterized by such derivative suffixes and prefixes as, -ous (dangerous), -ful (careful), -less
(careless), -y (lucky, funny), -ish (selfish), -some (troublesome), -al (central), -ial (commercial), -en
(wooden), -like (childlike), -able (preferable), -ent (different), -ive (talkative), un- (uncountable), in- (il-,
ir-, im-) (independent, illegal, irresistible, impatient), etc., and inflexional morphemes -er, -est
 has the grammatical category of degrees of comparison
 is characterized by a specific distribution with nouns and link words
 can perform the functions of attribute and predicative.
A large dog attacked me (attribute)
The dog was large (predicative)
Subclasses of adjectives
Gradable and non-gradable
Gradable adjectives denote qualities that can be present in varying degrees. Besides, they can be used with a wide
range of adverbs that are sometimes called ‘intensifiers’, such as very, quite, rather, fairly, pretty, so, too, how,
incredibly, completely, enough.
E.g. too difficult, not a very hearty welcome, a very awkward situation, etc.
Non-gradable adjectives are not compatible with degree adverbs and they denote such properties of a substance,
which are determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance.
E.g. a wooden house, a historical event (an event referring to a certain period of history), etc.
The category of degrees of comparison
In comparison with gradable adjectives, the category of degrees of comparison is singled out. This is a gradual
opposition, which is expressed by:
 Positive degree
 Comparative degree
 Superlative degree

 Absolute form: tall

 Comparative form: taller
 Superlative form: tallest
Some adjectives express the comparative and superlative degrees ‘inflectionally’ with the help of inflections –er
and –est, others do so ‘analytically’, that is conjunction with the degree adverbs more and most to modify them.
 Absolute form: beautiful
 Comparative form: more beautiful
 Superlative form: the most beautiful
Some adjectives have irregular forms for comparison:
 Good – better – the best
 Bad – worse – the worst
 Many – more – the most
 Little – less – the least, etc.
Others have irregular alternatives to the regular forms: far (farther/further, farthest/furthest) and old (older/elder,
oldest/eldest).
The category of state
Such words as awake, afraid, afloat, asleep, alike, alive, ashamed, aware, which are characterized by prefix a-, can
be singled out into a separate part of speech.
But many linguists (prof. L.Barkhudarov, M.Blokh, I.Ivanova) don't share this point of view on a-words as a
separate part of speech. Though these words are characterized by the common semantic meaning of state, the same
meaning can be rendered by some adjectives as well, e.g. angry, hopeful, sad etc.
As for the prefix a-, not all the words in the stative set possess this prefix: e.g. ill, well, glad, etc. On the other
hand, among the basic statives we find such words with fused "prefix root", e.g. aware, afraid, aloof.
Evidently, the category of state is nothing but a subclass of adjectives limited to the predicative function, e.g. He is
still alive.
Lecture 4. The Verb
Points for discussion
1. General characteristics of the verb.
2. The classification of verbs.
3. The categories of person and number of the verb.
4. The category of tense. The problem of future tense.
5. The category of aspect.
6. The category of voice.
7. The category of mood.
Verb is a part of speech, which expresses actions, activities and events (they are traditionally defined as ‘doing
words’). This class of words also includes members which denote states and relationships (e.g. be, seem, resemble),
sensory perceptions (e.g. hear, see), cognitive processes (e.g. think, believe) and the like.
Characteristics of the verb
1) Inflectional morphemes
–(e)s VS of the thord person, singular;
–ed (V-ed) of past tense;
–ing (V-ing) of gerund and participle one;
And such typical derivational morphemes as suffixes –ize (mobilize), –en (strengthen), –fy (magnify);
Prefixes re-, under-, over-, mis-, etc.;
Lexico-grammatical word-morphemes up, in, off; down, out, etc.,
e.g. stand up, come in, get off;
2) Grammatical categories of tense, aspect, voice, mood, etc.;
3) Verb can be associated with nouns, pronouns, denoting the doer of the action and the recipient of the action. It
is often modified by adverbs.
4) The vast majority of verbs function as the predicate within the sentence, auxiliaries (e.g. will, must, have)
function as dependents within verb phrases, as in will sing and must have gone.
Subclasses of verbs
 In accordance with their stem structure verbs fall under several groups:
a) Simple verbs: like, read, know;
b) Derived verbs, formed with the help of derivational morphemes: nationalize, purify, undergo, enable
etc.;
c) Compound verbs: broadcast, whitewash, proofread etc.;
d) Composite verbs (or phrasal verbs stems). Two types should be mentioned: have, give, take with a noun
(have breakfast, take a breath, take a glance, give a smile) and head verb with a verbal postposition (e.g.
go on, take off, pick up, etc.)
 According to the way of forming past tense and past participle, verbs are divided into standard or regular
having the suffix –ed with three allomorphs /t/, /d/, /id/ and non-standard or irregular with do not present a
uniformed group.
 Semantically, verbs may be divided into notional (‘lexical’) and semi-notional. English linguists R.Quirk,
S.Greenbaum, G.Leech, J,Svartvik use the terms ‘lexical’ and ‘auxiliary’.
Notional verbs possess full lexical meaning. They can make a sentence alone, e.g. Listen! Come in.
Semi-notional verbs can be: be, have, become, seem, can, must, may, etc. They include auxiliary verbs, modal
verbs and link verbs.
Auxiliary verbs serve for building categorial forms of the verbs:

Auxiliaries can be divided into two sub-classes:

 Modal auxiliaries: will, would, shall, should, may, might, can, could, must.
 Primary auxiliaries: be, have, do.
The primary auxiliaries are also main verbs, and like them (but unlike the modals) have a full set of verb
forms: be, have, do, shall, will, should, would, may, might.
Modal verbs are used to express meanings of attitude: ability, obligation, permission, probability. The modal
verbs can, may, must, shall, will, ought, need used to, dare are defective in forms, and are supplemented by
stative groups (be able to, have to and other equivalents).
 Depending upon the relations with the subject and object, verbs are divided into subjective and objective.

Objective verbs are usually associated both with subject and object while subjective verbs are only associated
with nouns denoting the subject, e.g. She got up and kissed him fairly; got up – subjective verb, kissed –
objective verb.

The terms “subjective” and “objective” correlate with the terms “transitive” and “intransitive”. Thus, objective
verbs connected with their objects directly are called transitive verbs; all other verbs are called intransitive.

 According to the aspective nature of their lexical meaning verbs may be divided into limitive and unlimitive
(durative). Cf. arrive, come, find, drop / sleep, behave, hope.
The category of person is represented by the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, and it expresses the relation between the
speaker, the person or persons addressed, and other persons and things.
The 1st person, of course, expresses the speaker or a group of which the speaker makes a part; the 2nd person, the
person or persons spoken to, and the 3rd, that person or thing (or those persons or things) which are neither the
speaker nor the person(s) spoken to.
From the point of view of the expression of the person, there are 3 groups of verbs:
1) Modal verbs have no personal inflections, the category of person is neutralized with these verbs.
 2) The expression of person by a unique lexeme "be" is three different suppletive personal forms: am for the
first person singular, are for the second person and is for the third person.
3) The remaining verbs express person by the opposition of the third person singular against other persons.
The strong member of the opposition is marked by the affix -(e)s, the other two persons remain unmarked.
The category of number expresses the quantity of the subjects (one or more than one). The more or less distinct
morphemic featuring of the category of number can be seen only with the verb "to be", both in the present tense
(am, is, are) and in the past tense (was, were).
Grammatical category of tense
 It is the reference of the verb to the moment of its immediate perception or to the "moment of speech“.
 Tense is the grammatical expression of verbal time. It represents the opposition of the past tense to the
present tense. The marked member of the opposition is the past form.
 English has two tenses – present and past – which are marked inflectionally. English does not have an
inflectional future tense. Shall go and will go are regarded in traditional grammars as representing future tense
auxiliary. However, shall and will are not tense inflections, but rather modal auxiliaries.
There are the following reasons why there is no future tense in English
 Tense in English (present/past) is marked by the inflections;
If we want to ‘invent’ a future tense, we would need to take –ll and attach it to the end of verbs: ‘it rain’ll’
 Will and shall grammatically belong to the class of modal auxiliaries
 Will doesn’t always refer to future time, and when it does, there is always another meaning, e.g. prediction,
command or promise
 Though will is very frequent, other forms are used to denote a future tense, e.g. be going to.
The category of aspect
English has two aspects – perfect and progressive, which express contrast.
 Perfect: I have sung. /They had walked.
 Progressive (continuous): I am singing. /They were walking.
Aspect is concerned with the temporal aspects of an event or situation, such as whether it is 'in progress' and
whether or not it has been completed, i.e.
 how an event or state relates to the surrounding time periods
 whether an event or state has relevance to another event, state or point in time
The perfect aspect
It involves a situation, which results from the completion of an earlier event or state. The perfect aspect is
expressed by the auxiliary have in conjunction with the following V-en form.
Perfect forms relate past events and states to the present time (present perfect) or to a subsequent point of time in
the past (past perfect). The relationship may involve:
 A completed action or state with a relevance to the present (or past): I've hidden the presents.
 An action or state lasting up to the present (or past): You’ve drunk enough.
 An accumulation of experience repeated series of events: I've met many diplomats/We have visited Norway
every July for 50 years.
The progressive aspect
It presents an event as being 'in progress', as ongoing, that is the event to have an earlier starting point and a later
finishing point.
The progressive aspect is expressed by the auxiliary be in conjunction with a following V-ing form, as in:
He's standing outside the door.
I was talking about something else.
She's been speaking for 45 minutes.
With the present progressive, we would normally understand that the search began earlier than the time of
utterance and will continue into the future.
E.g. So if you're looking for a better tertiary qualification, …
In the case of the past progressive the point in time during which the activity is presented as being in progress is
located in the past rather than in the present.
For example, the past progressive point in the following sentence is the speaker's Tuesday visit:
e.g. John was repairing his fence when I visited him last Tuesday
Here the past progressive presents the repair as in progress at the time of the visit.
The perfect and progressive aspects
The perfect and progressive aspects can of course be combined and can form one more aspect in English, which
is very rare, as in:
He has been making sandwiches for over an hour. /They had been walking.
Another example: I've been looking for you for 200 years.
Here the present perfect progressive combination suggests that over a period of time beginning before the time of
utterance, the search has been in progress, and that in all likelihood it will extend beyond the moment of utterance.
Sometimes the category of aspect allows us to use the habitual aspect (e.g. He used to cycle to work), indicated by
the expression used to as indicating a situation which obtained in the past and followed by an infinitival verb. This
aspect represents states or habits that are characteristic of an entire period.
Grammatical category of voice: definitions
• Voice expresses the relation between the subject and the action (I. Ivanova).
• Voice expresses the relations between the participants of the situation (subject, object) and the process. (M.
Blokh).
The vast majority of the authors of English scientific grammars recognize two voices in English - active and
passive. The marked member of the opposition is the passive form, which consists of the auxiliary "be" with the
past participle (be... –en').
The passive form as the strong member of the opposition expresses reception of the action by the subject, i.e. the
'passive' subject, which now denotes the object of the action.
The active voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject is the doer of the action expressed by the
predicate, i.e. the action is performed by its subject.
The category of voice is connected with the category of transitivity/intransitivity. In English, the category of
voice has a much broader representation in the system of verb than in Ukrainian, since in English not only
transitive, but also intransitive verbs including prepositional ones can be used in the passive. The English verb, as
the matter of fact, has lost its fixed transitivity/intransitivity.
I've just been rung by the police.
He was said to have been very wild in his youth.
The child will be looked after all night.
Some verbs are very common in the passive in English, for example:
It was alleged/claimed that . .
Be born (I was born in 19..) only occurs in the passive.
The passive voice is sometimes considered to be derived from the active voice. But it's all together wrong. Thus
the utterances:
(1) Tom beat John;
(2) John was beaten by Tom are not synonymous as different points of view are expressed. In the first sentence,
Tom is in the centre of interests of the speaker, and in the second - John is in the centre of interests. So the subject
of the sentence is the person or thing which is needed to be emphasized.
As O. Jespersen points out, in the sentence 'The doctor was sent for' the speaker is interested in the doctor, i.e.
who was sent for and not in the person who sent or who was sent.
The form of passive voice can be homonymous with compound nominal predicates, which consist of link verbs
“to be” and past participle. The differentiation between them is made on the basis of the fact that passive voice
renders action and compound nominal predicate renders state.
Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether the construction is in the passive voice or a compound nominal
predicate, e.g. I was upset by his news. Here “was upset” denotes state as a result of the action though it has the
strict passive meaning at the same time.
The category of mood
It is expressed by the opposition of the indicative and a number of oblique (indirect) moods.
The traditional grammar distinguishes between the indicative, which represrnts an action as real, the imperative,
subjunctive and the conditional mood which represents the action as non-real.
The indicative mood is viewed as expressing assertions, and it shows that the speaker presents this action as real
but not everything expressed by the verb in indicative verb is necessarily true. The speaker may either be mistaken
or he may be telling a deliberate lie. So, though the action is presented as real, it may not correspond to reality.
The imperative mood presents the action as ordered or recommended, addressed immediately to the second
person. Its formal expression uses the infinitive without “to” but with the verb “be”: “Be quick!”
Its negative form is expressed by “don’t”: Don’t worry!
Imperative mood forms are used in imperative sentences, which are characterized by the absence of subject. The
missing subject is usually interpreted as “you”, singular or plural. The use of “you” as a subject of the imperative
sentences is stylistically marked: e.g. You come here! You get out of here!
One of the forms of imperative is that with a modal verb “let”. This form of the imperative can be addressed to the
first and third person (e.g. Let us meet. Let him come.)
The subjunctive mood expresses suppositional or desired activity. It may have several types:
 The first type is known as the “present subjunctive”
It is used in that-clauses, when the main clause contains an expression of recommendation, resolution, demand to
suggest a future ‘desired’ state or action (the ‘mandative’ subjunctive) (suggest, demand, recommend, insist, it is
necessary, it is strange, it is advisable, etc.). In the subjunctive sentenced below, the verb has no ending.
I insist that he leaves tomorrow morning. (formal)
I suggest he leave immediately. (formal)
With be, the present subjunctive is the same for all persons (‘be’).
It is important that you be there on time. (formal)
It is necessary that he (should) be informed of the rules.
It is also used in the clause of purpose after the conjunction “lest”:
They covered the goods with canvas lest it (should) be damaged by rain.
 The second type is known as “conditional”
It uses the forms homonymous to Past Simple and Past Perfect. With be, the past subjunctive is the same for all
persons (‘were’), and this is a formal use. The was-form is possible in informal styles. These forms express the
degree of possibility of the action.
This type involves conditional and concessive clauses typically introduced by conjunctions if, if only and as though
(e.g. If I were a rich man…; It’s all as though he were looking for trouble), and also subordinate clauses with the
verb wish to express a hypothetical idea (e.g. I wish he had been here then).
Instead of if-clause inversion can be used:
Were I to see hem tomorrow, I would ask hem about it.
Had I seen him then, I would ask him about it.
 The third type is “modal subjunctive”.
It uses analytical forms with modal verbs “would, might, could” + infinitive or perfect infinitive in the main
clauses. It depends on the degree of possibility of the consequence of unreal condition. These forms are different
from the use of modal verbs in the indicative mood, because in the subjunctive the contracted forms can be used:
e.g. If he did it, we’d know about it.
 The fourth type is “formulaic subjunctive”
It consists of the infinitive without “to”, but is only used in certain fixed phrases expressing wishes:
 Come what may, we will go ahead.
 God save the Queen!
 Long live the King (the Queen).
 Suffice it to say that…
 Be that as it may…
 Heaven forbid that…
 May he rest in peace.
Lecture 5. Non-finite verbs (verbids)
1. The Infinitive
2. The Gerund
3. Participles
Non-finite verbs (verbids) are the forms of the verb, which in many of their lexico-grammatical features are
between the verb and the non-actional parts of speech. Their mixed nature is revealed in their meaning,
morphological form, combinability and syntactic functions. They render processes as peculiar kinds of substances
and properties. They are formed by special morphemic elements, which do not express either grammatical tense or
mood. They can be combined with verbs like non-verbal lexemes and they can be combined with non-actional
lexemes like verbs.
The infinitive is the non-finite form of the verb, which combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun,
serving as the verbal name of a process.
The infinitive is used in three types of functions:
1) As a notional syntactic part of the sentence;
2) As the constituent of a compound verbal predicate, (e.g. He can swim. He began to learn English 2 years
ago.);
3) As the notional constituent of the analytical form of the verb, (e.g. will go, shall go etc)
The first use, as professor M.Blokh states, is grammatically “free”, the second is grammatically “half-free”, the
third – grammatically “bound”.
Two presentational forms of the infinitive
One of them, characteristic of the free uses of the infinitive, is distinguished by the pre- positional marker “to”.
This form is traditionally called the “to-infinitive” or “marked infinitive”.
The other form, characteristic of the bound uses of the infinitive, does not employ the marker “to”, which is called
“"the bare infinitive” or “unmarked infinitive”
The unmarked infinitive is used:
a. With modal verbs (except the modals ought to, used to, have to, be to);
b. With verbs of physical perception, e.g. We heard hem play the violin;
c. With the verbs “let”, “make”, “help”, e.g. What made you do so?
d. With the verb “know” in the sense of “experience”, e.g. I have never known him be cruel with animals;
e. With a few verbal phrases of modal nature (had better, would rather, would have, etc.);
f. With the pronoun “why”, e.g. Why not go and do it?
Forms of Infinitives

Combinability
The verb-type combinability of the infinitive is displayed in its combining:
1) With nouns expressing the object of action (to read books);
2) With nouns expressing the subject of the action (I want Mary to go there);
3) With modifying adverbs (to read quickly);
4) With verbs of semi-functional nature forming a verbal predicate (can read);
5) With auxiliary verbs in the analytical form (will read).
The noun-type combinability of the infinitive is displayed it its combing:
1) With finite notional verbs as the object of the action (like to read);
2) With finite notional verbs when the infinitive is the subject of the action (To live means…).
Predicative constructions
1. Objective-with-the-infinitive construction (Complex Object),
e.g. I like her to sing; I heard Charlie play the piano

2. Subjective-with-the-infinitive constructions (Complex Subject),

e.g. Charlie was heard to play the piano

3. “for”-to-the-infinitive construction (“For” Complex)

e.g. It is necessary for him to do it.
Syntactic functions of infinitives
1. Subject:
To steal from the poor is inexcusable.
It is inexcusable to steal from the poor.
2. Predicative:
My ambition is to retire in Tahiti.
3. Object:
I hate to eat breakfast.
I consider it impossible to do any better.
4. Attribute:
Articles to be sold include one of my manuscripts.
We were anxious to leave. (after adjectives denoting mental or emotional states)
 5. Adverbial modifier:
To get to his place, you have to drive across the whole city.
The gerund is the non-finite form of the verb, which shares some features with the verb and some features with the
noun. Like the infinitive, it is the verbal name of process but unlike the infinitive and similar to the noun, the
gerund can be modified by the noun in the possessive case or possessive pronouns and it can be used with
prepositions.
Forms of Gerunds

The verb-type combinability of the gerund is displayed in its combining:

1) With nouns expressing the object of the sentence as in reading books;
2) With modifying adverbs (reading loudly);
3) With certain semi-functional verbs as in
Seeing is believing.
The noun-type combinability of the gerund is as follows:
1) With finite notional verbs when the gerund is the object of the sentence (enjoy playing);
2) With finite notional verbs when the gerund functions as subject of the sentence (Crying won't help);
3) With nouns + preposition (text for reading).
The gerund performs the functions of all the types of notional parts, i.e. the subject, the object, the predicative,
the attribute, the adverbial modifier. When used as the subject or the object of the sentence, gerund can take any
form, i.e. active, passive, perfect, non-perfect, e.g. Being angry wouldn't help.
When used as the attribute, gerund functions in the active non-perfect form only. In the function of prepositional
attribute the gerund is opposed to participle one. It denotes the action, which is substantivized, and participle one
denotes the property as the result of the action.
Cf.: a dancing hall - the hall for dancing; a dancing girl - the girl who is dancing
Gerundial constructions
A gerundial complex consists of a noun in the possessive case or a possessive pronoun and gerund (e.g. He minds
Mary's going there). The first part of the gerundial complex can also be expressed by a noun in the common case
or a personal pronoun in the objective case (e.g. I remember his sister taking part in the concert).
The present participle is the non-finite form of the verb, which combines the properties of the verb with those of
the adjective and the adverb.
The form of participle one is homonymous with the gerund, ending in the suffix –ing and distinguishes the same
grammatical forms (asking – having asked, being asked – having been asked; asking – being asked, having asked –
having been asked).
Combinability
The verb-type combinability of the present participle is revealed in its being combined:
1) With nouns expressing the object (opening the door);
2) with modifying adverbs (leaving hurriedly);
3) with auxiliary verbs in the analytical forms of the verb (Seeing is believing).
The adjective-type combinability of the present participle is revealed in its association with the nouns (a
sleeping beauty), as well as with some modifying adverbs (hard working).
The adverb-type combinability of present participle is revealed in its association with the modified verbs (e.g.
She went laughing).
Syntactic functions
Participle one can perform two syntactic functions: attribute and adverbial modifier. When used as the
attribute in the form of active voice, non-perfect, participle one can be used in preposition and functions like
adjective, e.g. a loving mother. Some linguists consider that in examples like "A loving mother", "it is surprising",
etc. the present participle is completely turned into the adjective.
Functioning as adverbial modifier, participle one can denote the action (simultaneous with (the action expressed
by the predicate (then non-perfect form is used) or prior to it (the perfect form of participle one is used).
Predicative constructions with Participle one
Objective and subjective predicative constructions, the absolute participial construction:
Cf. Suddenly a telephone was heard to buzz - The telephone was heard vainly buzzing in the study (subjective
predicative participial construction);
Nobody noticed the girl approach the house - Nobody noticed the girl approaching the house (objective
predicative participial construction).
The messenger waiting in the hall, we had only a couple of minutes to make a decision (A. Huxley);
We chatted of many things, Mary having eaten all the sweets, they had nothing for dessert.
There are cases when the gerund and the participle one are practically indistinguishable, e.g. Do you mind her
smoking?, where "her" may be the possessive pronoun (then "smoking" is the gerund) or the objective case of the
personal pronoun (then "smoking" is the present participle).
As prof. B. Ilyish says, the opposition between gerund and participle one in such cases is neutralized.
The past participle is the non-finite form of the verb, which combines the properties of the verb with those of the
adjective.
The functions of the past participle are those of attribute, adverbial modifier and predicative. e.g. A broken vase
lay on the table; When given the ball he immediately ran forward; She looked well-dressed.
Like the present participle the past participle is capable of making up predicative constructions of complex
object, complex subject and absolute complex, e.g. I want to have my hair cut; The work was considered
finished.
The absolute past participial complex as the rule expresses priority in the correlation of two events: e.g. The
preliminary talks completed, it became possible to concentrate on the central point of the agenda.
Lecture 6. Simple sentence
Points for discussion
1. The problem of the definition of the sentence
2. Predicativity as the main feature of the sentence
3. Types of sentences
4. Classification of sentences
The simplest grammatical definition of a sentence
It is ‘a string of words that follows the rules for forming clauses and combination of clauses.’
The fullest definition of the sentence
“Sentence is the minimum syntactical construction used in the acts of speech communication, characterized by
predicativity and realizing a definite structural pattern.”
 (H.Pocheptsov)
Sentence may include only one word. e.g. Come! John! Yes. Night. Why?
A one-word sentence is radically different from a word “lexeme”. While the word is component element of the
word stock and a nominative unit of language, the sentence is a predicative utterance unit. So, even one word
making up a sentence is turned into an utterance unit expressing the definite content (meaning) through the definite
context, it has some contextual connections.
Prof. M.Blokh compares the different contextual connections of the word-sentence "Night" in different situations:
(1) Night. Night and the boundless sea... Was it a dream of freedom coming true?
(2) Night? Oh no. No night for me until I have worked the case.
(3) Night. It pays all the days debts. No cause for worry now, I tell you.

(1) "Night" refers the event to the plane of reminiscences

(2) "Night" presents a question
(3) "Night" is in the form of a proposition of reason
It is used in the form of proposition or statement.
Consequently, unlike the word, the sentence does not exist in the system of language as a ready-made unit. Being
an utterance unit, the sentence is intonationally delimited. Intonation separates one sentence from another in the
flow of speech. Thus, we can modify the simplest definition as “a sentence a string of words that follows the rules
for forming clauses and combination of clauses that follows a certain intonation pattern”.
Predicativity as the main feature of the sentence
While uttering a sentence we perform the definite act.
The act of speech is the event with which all other events mentioned are correlated in time.
The speaker is the person with whom other persons and things mentioned in the sentence are correlated.
Reality is either accepted as the speaker sees it or an attempt is made to change it or some irreality is fancied.
e.g. The door is shut (the fact of reality is stated);
Shut the door, please (an attempt to change the reality);
If the door were shut... (unreal fact).
Three relations
1) To the act of speech
2) To the speaker
3) To reality can be summarized as the relations to the situation of speech.
The relation of the thought expressed in the sentence to the situation of speech is called predicativity.
According to the definition, advanced by A. Smyrnytsky, predication is understood as “referring the utterance to
reality”.
Predication reflects the connection between the event, on the one hand, and the objective reality, on the other,
showing the time of the event, its being real or unreal, desirable or undesirable, necessary or unnecessary.
e.g. I am satisfied, the experiment has succeeded.
I would have been satisfied if the experiment had succeed.
The experiment seems to have succeed – why then am I not satisfied?
It is necessary to distinguish between the predicate negation and particle not.
Particle "not" has right-hand connections with various classes of words, word phrases and clauses, e.g. May I ask
you not to cry at me?
The predicate negation has only left-hand connections with such verbs as "was, were, will, shall, etc. Unlike the
particle "not", the predicate negation is regularly contracted to "n't" and is fused with the preceding structural
predicate, e.g. hasn't, doesn't

The category of modality exposes the speaker's attitude toward the situation being described. In Linguistic
Perspectives on English Grammar (2010) Martin J. Endley suggests that modality is "the simplest way to explain
modality is to say that it has to do with the stance the speaker adopts toward some situation expressed in an
utterance".
As prof. M. Blokh states, modality, as different from predication, is not specifically confined to the sentence.
Modality is a broader category revealed both in the grammatical elements of language and in its lexical, purely
nominative elements. In this sense, every word expressing a definite correlation between the substance and
objective reality should be recognized as modal. Here belong such words as "probability", "necessity", "perhaps",
"may be", "just", and modal verbs. As for predication, it represents only syntactic modality.
Types of modality
'Objective' modality and 'subjective' modality
The objective modality can be subdivided into epistemic modality of reality / irreality (It would be nice to live by
the sea. (I don't live by the sea)), likelihood or necessity of situations and events as in You must be right, modality
of duty (must), possibility (may, possible, probably etc.), ability (can) etc.
The subjective (emotional) modality is expressed by such modal words as fortunately, unfortunately, hopefully,
deliberately etc. and reflects the speaker's emotional attitude to the information contained in the utterance.
Classification of sentences
According to the types of communication, there are four classes:
1) Declarative;
2) Interrogative;
3) Imperative;
4) Exclamative sentences.
Declarative
The traditional function of declaratives is as statements, that is, conveying information, feelings, etc. e.g. It’s ten
o’clock. I like it.
The sentence with the question mark is called a declarative question,
e.g. The door is open?
It is also possible with wh-words to give special emphasis, e.g. to express surprise or ask for repetition, e.g. She
said what? He sat where?
Interrogatives
Interrogatives or direct questions have three major subtypes:
(1) Yes/no questions: e.g. Can you swim? including a special subtype, tag questions, e.g. You can swim, can't you?
(2) Wh-questions: e.g. Where is he going?
(3) Alternative questions with two subtypes:
- Would you like blue, white, or red? – resembles a yes/no question
- Which colour would you like? Blue, white, or red? – resembles a wh-question
Questions also have a few minor types:
(a) Exclamatory questions inviting agreement, e.g. Am I tired! Isn't she beautiful!
(b) Rhetorical questions expecting no answer, e.g. Isn't this elementary? Haven't you got anything better to do?
How should I know?
Imperatives
The formal characteristic of imperatives is that no subject is mentioned. The basic form of the verb is used: Take
care. Be quiet.
There is also an emphatic imperative with do: Oh, do be quiet.
Negative imperatives are formed with do not (or don't) followed by an infinitive: Don't laugh at me.
This also applies to be: Don't be scared.
Exclamatives
Exclamatives are sentences expressing a strong emotion. In writing, they are usually signalled by an exclamation
mark. These are different from WH-interrogatives in that they do not contain subject-operator inversion:
What a nice day it is!
How quickly they reacted!
What a fool I was!
How much he looks like you!
Classification of sentences
According to sentence structure, the following two main types are singled out: simple sentences and composite
sentences (or 'multiple' sentences).
A simple sentence is one consisting of only one clause, while a multiple sentence consists of more than one
clause.
Multiple sentences are of two types: compound sentences and complex sentences. These are two types of
multiple sentences, reflecting the two main ways in which clauses are combined.
Simple two-member sentences
Simple sentences are classified into two-member and one-member sentences. Sentences, which contain a word or
a phrase denoting the doer of the action and another word or phrase denoting the action, are termed two-member
sentences. They have the subject and the predicate and can be extended and unextended. Cf. John ran. John ran
quickly to me.
There are sentences, which have only one main part, the other main part is implied. These two-member sentences
are called elliptical. E.g. No birds singing in the dawn (with either subject or predicate is omitted).
Hope you are well. (I hope ...)
(So are you coming?)- Depends on the weather. (It depends...)
(Why did he do it?) – Don't know. (I don't … )
Simple one-member sentences
One-member sentences can be of two types: nominal and verbal.
Nominal sentences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a noun. They may be unextended (e.g.
Silence. Summer.) and extended (e.g. The grass, this good, soft grass).
Verbal sentences are those in which the principal part can be expressed by the verb in the imperative mood, or by
the infinitive.
Imperative sentences with no subject of the action mentioned are also to be classed among one-member
sentences, e.g. Get away.
Another type of one-member sentences are infinitive sentences with an infinitive as the main part, e.g. To be
alive! These are one-member infinitive exclamatory sentences. Another type of infinitive sentences are
interrogative sentences beginning with "why" followed by an infinitive without the particle "to", and sometimes
preceded by the particle "not", e.g. Why not go there!
Sentences expressing confirmation and negation (Yes; No) and some formulas of courtesy (Hello! Good-bye. See
you tonight etc.) are also one-member sentences.
Lecture 7. The Constituent Structure of the Simple Sentence
Points for discussion
1. The problem of sentence parts.
2. The main parts of the sentence.
3. Secondary parts of the sentence.
It is common in grammatical theory to distinguish between the main and the secondary parts of a sentence. Besides
main and secondary parts, there are elements, which are said to stand outside the sentence structure. They are
detachment, apposition, and parenthesis. e.g. A famous linguist, namely Noam Chomsky, will speak tomorrow
night. You are not afraid, I hope.
The division into main and secondary parts of a sentence reflects their participation in the forming of the
predicative nucleus of the sentence.
Groups of sentence parts
1. Subject and predicate. They are interdependent and independent members in relation to any other part of the
sentence. They are two obligatory constituents in the sentence.
There are three theories of the hierarchy of the main parts of a sentence.
According to one of them (supported by Otto Jespersen) subject is the absolutely predominant part of a sentence.
The second point of view implies equality of the two main parts of the sentence (Hryhoriy Pocheptsov). The
third point of view states thạt the predicate (the 'verb') is the only predominant part of the sentence (Lucien
Tesnière). He positioned the verb as the root of all clause structure, and his conception was called 'verb centrality'
theory.
Groups of sentence parts
The second group of parts of a sentence is represented by objects. As a rule, they depend upon verb. Objects are
often obligatory constituents for the structural and semantic completeness of the sentence. For example, we cannot
omit object and adverbial modifiers in the sentences She treated Daddy like a child. My brother often invited her to
his parties. If we erase the objects from the sentence, this leads to sentences of questionable acceptance.
Adverbial modifiers. In most cases, they are optional because such circumstantial information is not obligatory
and can be omitted without causing ungrammaticality.
I left it on the table.
I fell asleep because I was tired.
However, there are a few situations where adverbials are obligatory:
I lay on the grass.
He put it in his pocket.
Here on the grass and in his pocket are necessary to make a clause; you could not say 'I lay' or 'l put it'.
The fourth group includes attributes. They are syntactically connected with nouns and can be omitted without
destroying the structural scheme of the sentence.
Two other men passed across his window.
Subject
The subject and the predicate are the main parts of the sentence. They can be defined according to three criteria:
the meaning, syntactic relations in the sentence and morphological realization.
Definition: the subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence, which denotes the thing or person whose
action or characteristic is expressed by the predicate, which is not dependent on any other part of the sentence but
predicate.
Apart from some special types of sentences, the position of the subject in English is rather fixed. Subjects occur
immediately before the verb phrase, with only certain adverbials being allowed to intervene, and in English,
subjects are obligatory.
The subject may be expressed by:
1) A noun in the common case (A swallow flew by. Mary gave her a book);
2) A pronoun (I objected; Everyone agreed; Nothing had changed; Something had disturbed him);
3) A numeral (The first was my friend);
4) An infinitive (To see you is a pleasure);
5) A gerund (Smoking is prohibited at the Institute);
6) A phrase, sometimes rather complex (The Port of Hew York Authority ticket book sales office is over there.
Their defeat and subsequent surrender means that the war is over.);
7) Clauses themselves can also be the subject in other clauses (Who can do it is not known; What you did is
unforgivable)
8) The anticipatory "it" (It is necessary to go home.).
Two views have been put forward concerning such sentences.
(1) the pronoun "it" at the beginning of the sentence is the formal subject, and the real subject is the infinitive.
(2) "it" is the subject of the sentence, and the infinitive – an apposition to it.
The predicate is one of the two main parts of the sentence, which denotes the action, or property of the thing
expressed by the subject. It is not dependent on other parts of the sentence but subject. Predicate (or simply the
term 'verb’) usually refers to everything in a sentence that says something about the subject.
Traditional classification of predicates
Simple verbal predicate consists of a notional verb in any tense, aspect, voice or mood form and it can also be
expressed by phraseological units and phrases.
e.g. His words frightened me.
We are having lunch now.
They have been taking care of him.
Compound verbal predicate can be of two types:
(1) The compound verbal modal predicate
(2) The compound verbal aspect predicate
The compound verbal modal predicate consists of the verb with a modal meaning or a modal expression and the
infinitive.
e.g. He can't say a word, he can't even apologize.
What am I to do?
Are you willing to prove that?
The compound verbal aspect predicate consists of a notional verb with an aspective meaning and the infinitive
or gerund. The first component expresses:
1. The beginning, the duration and the end of the action (to begin, to start, to commence, to come, to go on, to
proceed, to continue, to stop, to finish, to cease, to give up). Here also belong would (+inf.), used (+inf.) denoting a
repeated action in the past. e.g. She kept on smiling. Give up smoking. I used to dance when I was young.
2. Verbs of chancing and seeming (unexpected occurrence) (to chance, to appear, to seem, to happen, to prove,
to turn out). E.g. They happened to meet at the bus stop. They seemed to understand everything I said. He proved
to be a clever man.
3. Verbs denoting motion and position (to be in/out/away) e.g. Mother is out shopping.
Compound nominal predicate consists of link verbs (to be, to become, to get, to grow, to turn, to look, to seem)
and a predicative (=a nominal part) commonly expressed by a noun, an adjective, a pronoun, a numeral, an
infinitive, a gerund, a participle, a prepositional phrase or a clause.
e.g. The man was difficult to convince. I’m the first. She is on our side. That’s what I think. The leaves are turning
yellow.
Object is usually defined as a secondary part of the sentence, denoting a think to which the action passes on, which
is a result of the action, in reference to which an action is committed or a property
Classifications of objects
Purely structural classification of objects into prepositional and non-prepositional was proposed by prof.
A.Smyrnytskyi. But the basis of such classification is not very important, as it is not connected with the meaning.
Some linguists divide objects into direct, indirect and prepositional. There are sentence, which include both
direct and indirect objects. These are sentences in which the predicate is expressed by the verbs "send, show, give"
and the like. These verbs take two different kinds of objects simultaneously:
1) an object expressing the thing which is sent, shown, given, etc.;
2) the person or persons to whom the thing is sent, shown, given, etc:
e.g. We sent them a present.
He told me (direct) about his success.
The division of objects into direct
Classifications of objects
Prof. Pocheptsov distinguishes:
1) object complement
2) subject complement
3) addressee complement.
He uses the term "complement" in order to avoid tautology.
The object complement denotes the object of the action or its property. It can be both prepositional and non-
prepositional (Cf. He saw me – He looked at me).
The addressee complement denotes the person or thing to which the action is addressed. It can be prepositional
and non-prepositional as well (e.g., He offered me the book – He offered it to me).
The subject complement denotes the bearer of the action expressed by the verb. The verb then is in the passive
voice. The subject complement is always prepositional: by/with
Attribute is a secondary part of the sentence characterizing the thing as to its quality or property. Attributes can he
prepositional (when they precede the part of the sentence which they modify), or postpositional (when they
follow the word they modify).
e.g. a beautiful girl, from the time immemorial
The number of attributes in the attributive chain can be large.
Adjectival order is fixed and should be as follows:
1) opinion
2) shape
3) age
4) colour
5) origin
6) material
A nice long new black British plastic pen
Adverbial modifiers (or 'adjuncts') are defined as constituents that provide information about the circumstances of
the action denoted by the verb and its subject and objects. Such circumstantial information may, for example,
concern time, location, manner, cause or purpose. Thus, adverbial modifiers can be of different types: time, place,
condition, purpose, manner, concession, comparison, etc.
Lecture 8. The composite sentence
Points for discussion
1. The definition of the composite sentence.
2. Intermediate types of composite sentences.
3. Compound sentences.
4. Complex sentences.
The composite sentence expresses a complicated act of thought. The composite sentence in contrast to the simple
sentence is polypredicative, i.e. it has more than one predicative line. In terms of situations and events, this means
that the composite sentence reflects two or more elementary situations making up a unity.
Each predicative unit in a composite sentence makes up a clause in it.
e.g. I quickly shut the door before the animal could escape.
The means of combining clauses into a polypredicative sentence are divided into:
1) Syndetic, i.e. with the clauses linked by conjunctions and conjunctive words (adverbs or pronouns)
E.g., they had a little quarrel, which (but) he soon forgot.

2) Asyndetic, i.e. without any connectors (e.g. The poorer they became the more desperate they grew)
Coordination and subordination
Within a composite sentence clauses may be joined by means of coordination and subordination, thus forming a
compound and complex sentence respectively.
In coordination, the clauses are of equal syntactic status, with neither being contained within the other.
e.g. The door of Henry's room opened and two men came in.
In subordination, the clauses are of unequal status, with the lower status clause being embedded within the
structure of the other.
e.g. He always knew what was the right thing.
Sometimes coordination and subordination can be combined within one sentence. In this case, we have compound-
complex or complex-compound sentences.
e.g. I know that she hates me, but I'll make her love me.
It's a compound-complex sentence because it consists of two subordinate clauses in which one of them is complex
in structure.
A complex-compound sentence has two or more subordinate clauses connected by coordination.
e.g. He realized that he had a terrific responsibility and the best thing to do was to keep his mouth shut.
!!!!!! 2. Intermediate types of composite sentences. (d-learn)
In the compound sentences, clauses are connected by coordination as units of syntactically equal rank.
The authors of prescriptive arid scientific grammars considered the compound sentence to be the weak link in the
structural classification of sentences as the compound sentence contains syntactically independent coordinated
clauses.
The coordinating connectors are divided into conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, either ... or, neither... nor, etc.)
and connectors of adverbial character (then, yet, so, thus, moreover, however, etc.).
The coordinating conjunctions differ from each other in definiteness of meaning.
Cf.: 1. The old lady had recognized Ellen's handwriting and her fat little mouth was pursed in a frightened way ...
(M.Mitchel).
2. The bazaar had taken place Monday night and today was only Thursday.
In (1) there is a shade of meaning of cause-result due to the meanings of the words recognized and pursed in a
frightened way.
In (2) there is something like an adversative shade of meaning and this is due to the relation in meaning between
the word Monday in the first clause and that of the word only Thursday in the second.
Types of coordination between the clauses of a compound sentence
1. Copulative coordination. It implies that two events or ideas conveyed by coordinate clauses are merely joined
in time and place. The copulative connectors are: the conjunctions and, nor, neither … nor, not only...but also,
as well as, the conjunctive adverbs then, moreover.
E.g., I didn't recognize the girl, nor I remember her name.

2. Adversative coordination joins clauses containing opposition, contradiction or contrast. Adversative

connectors are: the conjunctions but, while, whereas, the conjunctive adverbs yet, still, nevertheless.
E.g., The story was amusing, but nobody laughed.
It was midsummer, yet it was rather chilly.
3. Causative-consecutive coordination joins clauses connected in such a way that one of them contains a reason
and the other – a consequence. The second clause may contain either the reason or the result of the event
conveyed by the previous clause. The conjunctions are: for, so, so that, therefore, hence.
E.g., The days became longer, for it was now springtime.
Everything is all right, so you needn't worry.

Note. The same kind of relations may be expressed by a complex sentence with a subordinate clause of cause
or result (because, as, so ... that). The difference is that the connection between the subordinate and principal
clauses. The cause or result expressed in coordination is added as a kind of afterthought, both clauses being
independent and separated by a comma or semicolon.

Cf. The windows were open, for it was hot. (Coordination)

The windows were open because it was hot. (Subordination)
It was so hot that the windows were open.
The complex sentence is a polypredicative construction built up on the principle of subordination. In the complex
sentences, clauses are connected by subordination as units of unequal rank, one being categorically dominated by
the other.
Subordination is a non-symmetrical relation between two clauses one of which is a constituent part of the other. Cf.
the coordination in John plays the piano and his sister plays the violin with the subordination in John plays the
piano, his sister plays moreover the violin.
The clause within which a subordinate clause is embedded is said to be superordinate to one or more other
clauses, so that a hierarchy of clauses, one within another, may be built up. A superordinate clause may be main
clause but it does not have to be. e.g. I think that you can do it if you try.
Here the subordinate clause If you try is an immediate constituent of the superordinate clause You can do it if you
try, and this clause in turn is an immediate constituent of the superordinate (or main) clause I think that you can do
it if you try.
Subordinate clauses can be classified according to two principles:
(1) According to their correlation with the parts of the sentence, subordinate clauses are divided into subject
clauses, predicative clauses, object clauses, attributive clauses and adverbial clauses. Prof. M. Blokh calls this
classification "the functional" one, because clauses are classed on the functional principle, i.e. on the analogy of the
positional parts of the simple sentence.
(2) On the basis of correlation with the parts of speech: subordinate clauses are substantival, adjectival, and
adverbial. M. Blokh calls this classification “a categorial” one, i.e. the classification on the categorial principle.
THE COMPOSITE SENTENCE

1. The definition of the composite sentence.

2. Intermediate types of composite sentences.
3. Compound sentences.
4. Complex sentences.

1. The composite sentence expresses a complicated act of thought. The composite sentence in contrast
to the simple sentence is polypredicative, i.e. it has more than one predicative line. In terms of situations and
events this means that the composite sentence reflects two or more elementary situations making up a unity.
Each predicative unit in a composite sentence makes up a clause in it.
e.g. I quickly shut the door before the animal could escape.

This sentence includes two clauses, which are related to one another.
While classifying composite sentences, first of all the way in which the parts of a composite sentence are
joined together must be taken into account. The means of combining clauses into a polypredicative sentence are
divided into
syndetic, i.e. with the clauses linked by conjunctions and conjunctive words (adverbs or pronouns). If
this joining word is a conjunction, it has no other function in the sentence but that of joining the clauses
together. If it is a pronoun or an adverb it, on the one hand, is a part of the clause, which is joined (a subject,
object, adverbial modifier etc.), and on the other hand, it has a joining function as well. e.g. They had a little
quarrel which (but) he soon forgot.
and asyndetic, i.e. without any connectors (e.g. The poorer they became the more desperate they grew)

Within a composite sentence clauses may be joined by means of coordination

and subordination, thus forming a compound and complex sentence respectively.
In coordination the clauses are of equal syntactic status, with neither being contained within the other.
e.g. The door of Henry’s room opened and two men came in.
In subordination the clauses are of unequal status, with the lower status clause being embedded within
the structure of the other.
e.g. He always knew what was the right thing.

Sometimes coordination and subordination can be combined within one sentence. In this case we have
compound-complex or complex-compound sentences.
e.g. I know that she hates me, but I’ll make her love me.
It’s a compound-complex sentence because it consists of two subordinate clauses in which one of them is
complex in structure.
A complex-compound sentence has two or more subordinate clauses connected by coordination.
 e.g. He realized that he had a terrific responsibility and the best thing to do was to keep his mouth shut.
2. Prof. B.Ilyish, M.Blokh and some other linguists consider that some sentences occupy an
intermediate position between the simple and the composite sentences M. Blokh calls them "semi-composite
sentences".
Among such transitional sentences between the simple and the composite
sentences prof. Ilyish distinguishes;
1) sentences with homogeneous parts;
2) sentences with a dependent appendix;
3) sentences with secondary predication.
Sentences with homogeneous parts can't be called compound because they can't be separated into two
classes, they have one separate subject.
e.g. Scarlett stood in her apple-green "second-day" dress in the parlor of Twelve Oaks amid the blaze of
hundred of candles, jostled by the Same throng as the night before, and saw the plain little face of Melanie
Hamilton glow into beauty... (K. Mitchell).
This sentence cannot be described as a compound one because it has only one subject, but it cannot very
well be described as a simple sentence either, as prof. Ilyish considers, because the predicates are different and
each of them is accompanied by a set of secondary parts. On this basis prof. Ilyish considers it safe to say that
this sentence stands somewhere between simple and compound sentences.
Among sentences with a dependent appendix B.Ilyish distinguishes sentences:
1) with conjunction "than" + noun, pronoun, e.g. ...I've known many ladies who were prettier than you...
(K. Mitchell);
2) sentences containing an adjective or adverb, which may be preceded by the adverb "as" + additional
part consisting of the conjunction "as" + adjective, or noun, or an adverb, e.g. The conduct of a widow must be
twice as circumspect as that of a matron (K. Mitchell). Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail (Ch. Dickens);
3) a subordinating conjunction "as though", "though" + a phrase, e.g. Catherine, though a little
disappointed, had too much good nature to make any opposition.
All these sentences, as prof. Ilyish considers, contain something which doesn't fit into the pattern of a
simple sentence, yet, at the same time they lack something that is necessary to make the sentence complex.
The third group of transitional sentences singled out by prof. Ilyish are sentences with secondary
predication, i.e. predication which is not between the subject and the predicate of the sentence.
O. Jespersen proposed the term "nexus" for every predicative grouping of words. There are several ways
of expressing secondary predication in modern English:
1. The complex object, e.g. We expect you to visit us. The primary predication in this sentence is
between the subject "we" and predicate "expect". The predication between "you - to visit" is obviously a
secondary one. Here belong such objective predicative constructions as
I saw him running (Part.l); I found him ill (adj.); I found him asleep (stative).
2. Another type of secondary predication may be seen in the so-called absolute construction. Absolute
participial constructions are the most frequent among absolute constructions. e.g. The preliminary greetings
spoken, Denis found an empty chair and sat down.

2. Syndetic composite sentences are divided into compound and complex. In the compound sentences
clauses are connected by coordination as units of syntactically equal rank.
 A sequential clause in a compound sentence refers to the whole of the leading clause, whereas a
subordinate clause in a complex sentence, as a rule, refers to one notional constituent in a principal clause.
The authors of prescriptive arid scientific grammars considered the compound sentence to be the weak
link in the structural classification of sentences as the compound sentence contains syntactically independent
coordinated clauses or sentences.
The coordinating connectors are divided into conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, either … or, neither …
nor, etc.) and connectors of adverbial character (then, yet, so, thus, moreover, however, etc.).
We can represent the constituent structure of the compound sentence with the coordinator as an
immediate constituent of the coordination in the following way.

S
e

Claus Coor Claus

e d e

John is an andhis girlfriend is studying philosophy at

accountant university

The coordinating conjunctions differ from each other in definiteness of meaning. Cf.: 1. The old lady had
recognized Ellen’s handwriting and her fat little mouth was pursed in a frightened way … (M.Mitchel).
2. The bazaar had taken place Monday night and today was only Thursday.
The first sentence has a shade of meaning of cause-result, and this is obviously due to the meanings of
the words recognized and pursed in a frightened way. In the second sentence there is something like an
adversative shade of meaning and this is due to the relation in meaning between the word Monday in the first
clause and that of the word only Thursday in the second.
There are few conjunctions generally classed as subordinating which in certain, conditions tend to
become coordinating. So the sentences in which they occur may be considered to be compound rather than
complex, or, to be more exact, the distinction between coordination and subordination, and consequently that
between compound and complex sentences is in such cases neutralized. This concerns the conjunction while.
The conjunction while expresses simultaneity of an action with another action. However; this meaning of
simultaneity can change into a different meaning.
 E.g. 1. Magnus briefly outlined the case for the independent sovereignty of Scotland, while Frieda
listened without any remarkable interest.
2. He sat by the fire while they drank tea.
It is clear that the while-clause in the first example does not express the time when the action of the first
clause took place. It rather expresses adversative relations and it serves to characterize the doer of the action.
In such cases the reasons for calling the while-clause a subordinate one are very much weakened. We
might here put the conjunction and instead of while and the actual meaning would be the same.
There the following types of coordination between the clauses of a compound sentence:
1. Copulative coordination. It implies that two events or ideas conveyed by coordinate clauses are
merely joined in time and place. The copulative connectors are: the conjunctions and, nor, nether … nor, not
only…but also, as well as, the conjunctive adverbs then, moreover.
e.g. I didn’t recognize the girl, nor I remember her name.
2. Adversative coordination joins clauses containing opposition, contradiction or contrast. Adversative
connectors are: the conjunctions but, while, whereas, the conjunctive adverbs yet, still, nevertheless.
e.g. The story was amusing, but nobody laughed. It was midsummer,
yet it was rather chilly.
3. Causative-consecutive coordination joins clauses connected in such a way that one of them contains a
reason and the other – a consequence. The second clause may contain either the reason or the result of the event
conveyed by the previous clause. The conjunctions are: for, so, so that, therefore, hence.
e.g. The days became longer, for it was now springtime. Everything is all
right, so you needn’t worry.
Note. The same kind of relations may be expressed by a complex sentence with a subordinate clause of
cause or result (because, as, so … that). The difference is that the connection between the subordinate and
principal clauses. The cause or result expressed in coordination is added as a kind of afterthought, both clauses
being independent and separated by a comma or semicolon.
Cf. The windows were open, for it was hot. (coordination) The windows were
open because it was hot.
It was so hot that the windows were open.
4. The complex sentence is a polypredicative construction built up on the principle of subordination. In
the complex sentences clauses are connected by subordination as units of unequal rank, one being categorically
dominated by the other. Subordination is a non-symmetrical relation between two clauses one of which is a
constituent part of the other. Compare the coordination in "I like John and John likes me" with the subordination
in "I like John because John likes me”.
The clause within which a subordinate clause is embedded is said to be superordinate to one or more
other clauses, so that a hierarchy of clauses, one within another, may be built up. A superordinate clause may be
a main clause but it does not have to be.
A relatively simple example is: e.g. I think that you can do it if you try.
Here the subordinate clause If you try is an immediate constituent of the
superordinate clause You can do it if you try, and this clause in turn is an immediate constituent of the
superordinate (and main) clause I think that you can do it if you try. The relationships may be seen more clearly
in a tree diagram.
Se – sentence S – subject
NP – noun phrase P – predicate
VP – verb phrase O – object
A – adjunct
SCl – subordinate clause

S
e

S:N P:V Sub O:S

P P ord Cl

S:NPP:V A:S
P Cl

O
d

I thi th you can if you

nk at do it try

Thus, the complex sentence consists of the principal (main) clause and the subordinate clause. But terms
"main" and "subordinate" are rather conventional ones. There are complex sentences, in which the main clause is
not represented even by a part of a sentence, but its component: e.g. What he learnt was that they had never
arrived.
Subordinate clauses correlate with the parts of the sentence, i.e. with words, but unlike the words they
render a situation. Subordinate clauses can be classified according to two principles:
l) according to their correlation with the parts of the sentence, subordinate clauses are divided into
subject clauses, predicative clauses, object clauses, attributive clauses and adverbial clauses. Prof. M. Blokh
calls this classification "the functional" one, because clauses are classed on the functional principle, i.e. on the
analogy of the positional parts of the simple sentence.
2) the second classification is on the basis of correlation with the parts of speech: subordinate clauses
substantial, adjectival, adverbial. M. Blokh calls this classification a categorial one, i.e. the classification on the
categorial principle.
 The traditional definition of the subject clause is the following a clause which performs within a
complex sentence the same function that the subject performs within a simple sentence. It quite fits for the cases
like. e.g. What had happened was that I had spent too much time in the library.
Things are somewhat more difficult and controversial in sentences like: It had seemed certain that their
meeting was fortunate. There are two views upon such sentences: l) It is formal subject, subordinate clause is
real subject; 2) It is real subject; subordinate clause is appositional clause referring to the subject of the main
clause.
Predicative clauses are clauses of the type: This was exactly what she had expected him to say... The
reason for calling these clauses predicative is that if they are dropped the sentence will be unfinished: there will
be the link verb, but the predicative will be missing.
We must also consider under the heading of predicative clauses the following type: It's because he's weak
that he needs me. Here the predicative subordinate clause is included within the construction "it is ... that".
The easiest cases of complex sentences with the object subordinate clause are those in which the
subordinate clause can be replaced by a noun which would then be an object in a simple sentence. These are the
sentences of the type. e.g. He bought what he wanted.
Object clauses introduced by prepositions are termed prepositional object clauses. Most verbs which
combine with a preposition in a simple sentence do so in a complex sentence as well. e.g. It depends on what
you will say.
But we must note that a prepositional object in a simple sentence does not always correspond to a
prepositional object clause, e.g. the verb "insist" which always combines with the preposition "on" (or upon) in
& simple sentence never has this preposition when followed by an object clause, e.g. Strickland insisted that he
should take the picture.
In some cases an object in a simple sentence may have a synonymous object clause. e.g. I heard of his
arrival – I heard that he had arrived. The meaning of the two sentences in each case is exactly the same, but
there is a certain stylistic difference: the simple sentence with the prepositional object sounds more literary or
even bookish than the complex sentence with the object clause which is fit for any sort of style.
Most usually attributive clause comes immediately after its head word. But sometimes it comes after
some other word or phrase. e.g. He wanted Ann to die, whom his son passionately loved.

Adverbial clauses are the most numerous among subordinate ones.

Some adverbial clauses can be easily grouped under types more or less corresponding to the types of
adverbial modifiers in a simple sentence. Thus adverbial clauses of time, place, condition and concession, reason
or cause, purpose, result, manner and comparison and some other are singled out.
Adverbial clauses of time are introduced by such subordinators as: after, before, since, until, when, e.g.
When I last saw you, you lived in Washington.
Clauses of place are introduced by where or wherever: e.g. They went wherever they could find work.
Conditional clauses state the dependence of one circumstance or set of
circumstances on another: If you treat her kindly, she'll do anything for you. Adverbial clauses of condition are
introduced by the subordinators: if (positive condition) and unless (negative condition). Compound conjunctions
"provided that" or "providing that", "as long as, on condition that" are used in adverbial conditional clauses.
Conditional clauses can be of real and unreal condition.
Concessive clauses imply a contrast between two circumstances:
Although, he hadn't eaten for days, he (nevertheless) looked very fit. They are introduced by though,
although, while, whereas, even if, e.g. If he is poor, at least he is honest.
Clauses of reason or cause are most commonly introduced by the conjunctions because, as, since, e.g. I
lent him the money because he needed it.
Clauses of purpose are introduced by in order to, so as to, e.g. John visited London in order that (so that)
he could see the ceremony of the key.
Result clauses are introduced by so that, so, e.g. We planted many shrubs, so (that) the garden soon
looked beautiful.
Clauses of manner are introduced by (exactly) as, (just) as e.g. Please do it (exactly) as I instructed.
Adverbial clauses of comparison ore introduced by if; as though, e.g. He looks as if he is going to be ill.
LECTURE WORD PHRASES

1. The word phrase as a syntactic unit.

2. The internal structure of phrases.
3. Classifications of word phrases.

1. The word-group is a separate language unit that qualitatively differs from other language units (a
word, a clause, a sentence). To better understand the phenomenon of the word-group, let us consider it in
opposition to the sentence.
1) The phrase is a nominative unit, denoting a complex referent (phenomenon of reality), which can be a
concrete thing, an action, a quality, or a whole situation (a picturesque village, to start with a joke, extremely
difficult, the unexpected arrival of the chief). The phrase is further analyzed into its component elements with
various relations between them.
2) A word-group and a sentence refer to different sublevels within syntax. A word-group is non-
communicative, may only be a part of an utterance, while the sentence is the basic communicative unit, stands
separately in speech in the form of an utterance.
3) A word-group and a sentence differ greatly in the formal aspect. Within a word-group it is quite
possible to change the paradigmatic form of the constituents, without destroying the identity of the word-group
(e.g. to read a book – to be reading a book, to have read a book, to read books). Things are different with
reference to a sentence (e.g. The book was read). The change of the paradigmatic form of the constituents is sure
to result in destroying the structure of the sentence and will lead to unmarkedness of the structure. A word-group
does not have an intonation of its own, while the intonation is one of the essential properties of a sentence.
There exist many definitions of a word phrase. The traditional view is that a word phrase is a combination
of two or more notional words. Prof. B. Ilyish defines phrase as every combination of two or more words which
is a grammatical unit but is not an analytical form of some word (for instance, the perfect forms of verbs), even
“prep + noun”, “conj + noun” etc. are considered to be a word phrase.
Thus, there are “noun+noun”, “adjective+noun”, “verb+noun”, “verb+adverb”, “adverb+adjective”,
“adverb+adverb” types of phrases. Phrases are made up not only by notional words but also by functional words,
e.g.: “in accordance with”, “due to”, “apart form”, “as soon as” – such phrases function in the sentence like
prepositions and conjunctions.
The theory of word phrase appeared abroad only in the 30s of the XXth century. The American linguist
L. Bloomfield treats a word phrase widely as any syntactically organized group. He divides word phrases into
two groups: 1) exocentric or headed (from Gr. endon ‘inside’) and exocentric or non-headed (from Gr. exo
‘outside’). Endocentric structures are such structures in which one of the constituents can function in the same
way as the whole structure, e.g. poor John is the endocentric word phrase because "John" can substitute the
whole word phrase in the
sentence Poor John ran away – John ran away. In exocentric constructions neither of the constituents can
substitute the whole word-combination, e.g. John ran.

2. The internal structure of phrases.

There exist different types of phrases, whose possible structures are somehow dependent on the most
important word of the respective phrase.
For example, in the phrases given below, the most important word is a noun, and the noun can be
accompanied by certain types of words in certain positions. Have a look at the following phrases:
[his sister]
[their red-haired brother] [a letter to
John]

[the best actor in town]

[this good student from Washington] [my last friend at
school]

[people who knock on the door]

It seems that within a phrase certain types of words always occur in the same type of position. This
becomes clear if we draw a table, as in the table.

slot 1 slot 2 slot 3 slot 4

his sister
the red-haired brother
ir letter to John
a actor in town
the best student from Washington
thi good friend at school
s last people who knock on the
m door
y

There are four slots where certain kinds of elements can go. The central element of the phrase, the noun, is
in slot 3, while slot 2 is optionally occupied by an adjective, and slot 1 is occupied by an article (the, a), a
demonstrative (this) or a possessive (his, their). Note that this slot can also remain empty, as for example in
[people who knock on the door]. Slot 4 can either remain empty or may contain smaller or larger constituents.
The most important element of a phrase is its head which names the phrases after their heads. Thus we have
examples of noun phrases (abbreviated as ‘NPs’), i.e. of phrases headed by a noun. As we can see in the
following examples, other kinds of phrases have other kinds of head.

3. Classifications of word phrases.

According to their syntactic structure phrases are divided first into simple and complex. Simple phrases
consist of two words. Complex phrases consist of three or more words. Complex three-componental phrases can
be of three types:
1) simple word-combinations + adjunct (youth festival – Paris youth festival);
 2) the head + dependent simple phrases (passenger transport drivers – drivers of the passenger
transport);
3) the head + two dependent words (adjuncts) which are not connected between themselves (to put the
book into the bag – to put the book and to put into the bag);
According to the part speech of the head phrases are divided into
1) substantival (John's house);
2) adjectival (extremely nervous);
3) adverbial (very friendly);
4) verbal (to read quickly, to read the newspaper);
5) pronominal (something new);
6) word-combinations with numerals as their heads (nearly five).
According to the type of syntactic connection and relations between the components of a word phrase
they are divided into: subordinate, coordinate and predicative. Subordinate word phrases are formed by
words, which are syntactically unequal in the sense that in the two-word combination one word plays the role of
a modifier of the other. The principal element of this phrase is called the head and the subordinate element is
called the adjunct.
Subordinate connection is realized by means of agreement, government and adjoinment.
By agreement such method of expressing a syntactical relationship is meant which consists in making
the subordinate word take a form similar to that of the head word. In modern English it refers only to the
category of number, a subordinate word agrees in number with its head word. This is practically found in two
words only; the pronouns "this" and "that" agree in number with their head word (e.g. this lamp – these lamps).
On the sentence level there is agreement of the verb with the noun or pronoun denoting the subject of the
action (a child plays, children play, all men are mortal, etc). (agreement of the predicate with the subject).
In Ukrainian, for example, there is also an agreement in case and gender.
As to the problem of agreement of the verb with the noun or pronoun denoting the subject of the action
(e.g. the boy sings – boys sing), there are different views upon it. Usually it is treated as agreement of the
predicate with the subject. But, as prof. B.Ilyish states, the question arises: does the verb stand in the plural
number because the noun denoting the subject of the action is plural, so that the verb is in the full sense of the
word subordinate to the noun? Or does the verb express by its category of number the singularity or plurality of
the doer (or doers)? Such sentences as "My family are* early risers", "The United Nations is an international
organization" show that the verb does not always follow the noun in the category of number.
The existence of such sentences proves that there is no agreement of the verb with the nouns the verb
shows whether the subject of the action is to be thought of as singular or plural, no matter what the category of
number in the noun may be.
Thus the sphere of agreement in Modern English is restricted to two pronouns
this and that.
The second way of subordinate connection, the government, is the use of a certain form of the
subordinate word required by its headword, but not coinciding
with the form of the headword (that is the difference between agreement and government). The role of
government in Modern English is almost as insignificant as that of agreement.
The case of government is found between verb and object, i.e. the use of the personal pronouns in the
objective case when they are subordinate to a verb, e.g. invite them; and between head-noun and attributive
adjunct (e.g. John’s father, his brother); the relations objects with a preposition to the governing verbs (e.g. gave
to my friend, waited for him, tell about him, etc.).
Adjoinment is the adjoining position of two words joined by the common grammatical function and
meaning. A. is found: (1) between adverbs and verbs (e.g. write quickly), (2) between attributes and head-nouns
(e.g. good stuff) and (3) between articles and nouns (e.g. a boy).
Another way of expressing syntactical connection which plays a significant role in modern English is
called "enclosure". Some element of a phrase is enclosed between two parts of another element. The most
widely known case of "enclosure" is the putting of a word between an article and the noun to which the article
belongs.
Besides adjectives the position can be taken by other parts of speech, e.g. by adverb, e.g. the then
government (here the adverb "then", being enclosed between the article and the noun it belongs to is in this way
shown to be an attribute to the noun). In the phrase "the matter-of-fact decision" the component "matter-of-fact"
is enclosed between the article and the noun to which the article belongs. In split infinitive and split gerund the
adverb may be enclosed, e.g. to thoroughly investigate, by publicly downplaying, etc.
Components of coordinate phrases relate to one another on an equal rank so that in a two-word (simple)
combination neither of them serves as a modifier of the other.
Coordinate connection of notional words is realized either with the help of conjunctions (or syndetically),
or without the help of conjunctions (or asyndetically).
Among coordinate word-combinations the group of "cumulative" phrases is distinguished. The
constituents of cumulative phrases are equal by their formal representation but unequal by their character of
nomination, e.g. satisfied, or nearly so; agreed, but reluctantly, either he or his brother, not only he but also his
brother.
An important question arises concerning the pattern "noun + verb" which is called "predicative
phrase". Being equal in rank they are connected by agreement.
Predicative word-groups are based on syntagmatic relations of interdependence, predicative syntactic
relations, and predication as a type of connection (e.g. him/his coming, for him to come).
Te phrase "noun + verb" can be regarded both as a phrase and a sentence. If we take, for instance, the
group "a man writes" on the phrasal level, this means, that each of the components can be changed in accordance
with its paradigm.
Thus, the groups "a man writes, men write, a man wrote, men are writing", etc. are all variants of the
some phrase. On the sentence level things are different. "A man writes" as a sentence is not the same sentence as
"Men have been writing".
State the type of syntactic relations in the following phrases:
- really amazing
- people were busy
- a lower I’m-talking-to-myself voice
- came in to ask
LECTURE
Communicative analysis of the sentence

1. The theory of semantic roles.

2. Actual division of the sentence.
3. Means of expressing actual division.

1. As each sentence is a sign of situation, we can speak about situational semantics of the sentence. The
famous French linguist Lucien Tesnière compared the sentence with a theatrical performance having its
participants and circumstances. Like a drama, it obligatorily involves a process and most often actors and
circumstances. Transferred from the theatre to structural syntax, the process, the actors, and the circumstances
become respectively the verb, the actants, and the circumstants (L. Tesnière, Elements of Structural Syntax,
2015, p. 97).
When we analyze the sentence as it is represented in speech we can speak about its surface structure
which can be described in terms of subject, object, predicate, attribute and adverbial modifier.
On the other hand, when we analyze the sentence as a sign of situation we speak about its deep structure.
e.g. The role of Phaedra was played by a beautiful French actress madam Besancon.

One sentence may correspond to several situations:

Madam B. is an actress. She is from France. She plays the role of Phaedra. She played it beautifully.
The deep structure is singled out with the help of transformations. Semantic functions of words in the
deep structure of the sentence are called semantic roles. A semantic role is the underlying relationship that a
participant has with the main verb in a sentence.
In his seminal paper, The Case for Case (1968), Ch. Fillmore proposed a universal set of atomic semantic
roles. According to his theory they are called deep- structure cases underlying syntactic-semantic relationships.
To a great extent establishing roles and ascribing particular arguments to roles involves an extralinguistic
classification of relationships between entities in the world.

The most widely spread semantic or thematic roles include agent, nominative, patient, factitive,
instrument, location, source, temporative.

Agent is defined as an animate thing which fulfils the action denoted by the
verb.
e.g. The audience rose to the feet. John
broke the windshield.
In the surface structure it is conveyed by the subject or subject complement
(e.g. Tom kicked the ball; The ball was kicked by Tom).
 Nominative is a semantic role which correlates with the agent but unlike the agent it is expressed by an
inanimate noun (e.g. His eyes twinkled. Mountains frightened him. The wind broke the windshield.)
Patient can be described as
(a) an entity viewed as existing in a state, located or moving
e.g. The sky is blue The stone
moved
(b) an entity affected by the action or state, it is rendered by the object or object complement in the
surface structure. (e.g. I gave to children some sweets. The surgeons operated on her for several hours).
Factitive is the entity that didn’t exist before but come into being as a result of the action (e.g.
Frankenstein created a monster. Tom dug the hole. Mary baked a cake);
Instrument is the object (usually inanimate) with which the act is accomplished (e.g. He got beaten by a
gang; Tom cut a rose with a knife; John opened the door with the crowbar).
The location role has different subtypes because there are many locative meanings expressed by the
prepositions on, in, over, above, under etc. Hence there are locatives of starting point (e.g. He jumped from the
rock), locatives of terminal (e.g. He jumped into the sea).
The location role can also be played by the phrase that designates the state at or in which something is at
a particular time (e.g. John is in a foul humor. John is in his evening wear). Locatives usually correspond to the
adverbial modifier in the surface structure but sometimes it may be denoted by the subject (e.g. The bus holds
forty people. Forty people can sit in the bus).
The source role is played by the phrase that indicates the place or state to which something moves:
e.g. John went from New York to New Orleans.
his bed his bath
silly serious

Temporative usually corresponds to the adverbial modifier of time in the surface structure but
sometimes it may correspond to the subject (e.g. Yesterday was a busy day. Tomorrow is his birthday).
Purpose denotes the purpose of an activity (e.g. He went to the café for some take-away).
Manner means the way in which an activity is done or the way in which a change of state takes place
(e.g. She spoke to us politely).

2. The most important feature of the sentence is the reaction of the speaker to some reality. All declarative
sentences contain two basic content elements:
(1) a statement and (2) an element about which the statement is made.
If a sentence is to be formulated clearly, especially in writing, we should make a clear-cut distinction
between these two basic elements, i.e. we should employ a functional sentence perspective (FSP), theme-rheme
structure or actual division.
The actual division of the sentence is the division of it into the part, which carries the data, known before,
what the sentence is about, the theme of the sentence;
and the new information, what is said about the theme, the rheme. Actual division is such communicative
organization of the sentence which is predetermined by the speaker’s will who singles out introductory
information which as a rule is connected with the previous sentence and a new information. Thus, actual division
of the sentence is its informational arrangement.
Of the numerous terms used to designate the constituents of information units, we deal with the two most
wide-spread, i.e. “theme” and “rheme”. Theme comes from a Greek root “the” which means “to establish”, “to
set”. Rheme also comes from Greek “rhe” which denotes “to say”, “to tell”.
The prevailing view is that theme as an item of discourse denotes something that is spoken about,
something that is known or at least obvious in the given situation.
Rheme is what one says about the theme, it conveys the most important information already established
and whose expression is the purpose of communication.
e.g. John gave a book to Mary.
In this sentence Mary is the rheme when we can ask the question: Whom did John give a book? But if we
are interested in Who gave a book to Mary? Then, John is a rheme or Mary (T) was given a book by John (R).
Thus, the theme denotes the starting point of the communication, an object or phenomenon about
something is reported, The rheme expresses the main information of the sentence.
It is possible to determine the theme and the rheme by using the context caused by extra- and
intralinguistic factors. The extralinguistic factors are situational referents, underlying questions or disagreement
arising from the situation, the communicant’s intentions and presuppositions.
(1) ‘Smell!’ said Pollard, suffing the wind.
(2) An old woman went to pick berries.
In (1), the extralinguistic factor is the situational referents – what the speaker smells, while the rheme is
smell.
In (2), the extralinguistic factor is a presupposition – an expectation of some action, the rheme being the
whole sentence (an old woman … berries).

3. Means of expressing actual division are as follows:

(1) intonation. It is limited to oral speech only.
(2) word order which depends on the grammatical structure of a given language. The rheme usually
occupies the final position in the sentence. Thus, in a language with a highly developed morphological system
and free word order, the latter can be used to show the difference between theme and rheme. For instance, the
word order plays an important part from the view point in Ukrainian. We may point out the difference between
such sentences as Учитель зайшов and Зайшов учитель. In each case the word which comes last corresponds
to the rheme, and the rest of the sentence – to the theme. It is quite clear that no such variation would be possible
in an English sentence.
There exists the so-called emphatic inversion when a secondary part occupies the initial position in the
sentence (e.g. Only to me (Never before) did John send a postcard). E.g. John did send me a postcard.
 (3) the indefinite article which is used to introduce something that makes part of the new information.
The examples are numerous:

(a) Дівчина (T) виглянула з вікна (R). З вікна (T)

виглянула дівчина (R).
The girl (T) looked out of the window (R). A girl (R) looked out
of the window (T).

(b) Лісництво (T) було недалеко від села (R). Недалеко від села
(T) було лісництво (R). The forestry (T) was near the village
(R). There was a forestry (R) near the village (T).

The words дівчина and лісництво are the theme in Ukrainian when they stand at the beginning of the
sentence and the rheme when they are in the end position. In English this difference is made clear by the use of
the articles and the structure with “there is”.
(4) syntactic constructions. In Modern English there are several ways of showing that a word or phrase
corresponds either to the rheme or to the theme. These are the constructions it is … that, it is … who, it is …
which with the word or phrase representing the rheme being enclosed between the words it is and the word that
(who, which etc.). Such sentences are called cleft sentences.
e.g. John wore his best suit for the dance last night.
In this sentence it is possible to stress any part with the help of the cleft sentence.
Variants:

It was John who wore …

It was his best suit which … It was for the
dance that … It was last night that …
Structurally, in cleft sentences the subordinate clause is similar to a restrictive relative, in being
introduced by a relative phrase (who, that, etc.). However, it differs in the strong preference for the relative items
(that, who, which, etc.), and in the range of elements that occur as antecedent.
(5) particles only, even, the auxiliaries do, does, did. E.g. John did send me a postcard.
The particles point out the rheme expressing a particular shade of meaning in the sentence. In such
sentences as “Only he came”, “Even he came”, the subject he is shown to represent the rheme by a particle
referring to it.